Introduction

The design of this chapter is to expose the sins of Israel and of Judah, and to declare the judgment of God upon them for them. Men of all ranks in Israel are summoned to attend to the charge brought against then, and the sentence on them, \\#Ho 5:1\\. The charge exhibited is, that they were guilty of in, hating men to the slaughter of idolatrous sacrifices, though they had been sufficiently rebuked and corrected, \\#Ho 5:1,2\\; of both corporeal and spiritual adultery, whereby they were defiled, and which was well known to the Lord, \\#Ho 5:3\\; of obstinate persistence in impenitence, owing to the efficacy of an unclean spirit in them, and their want of the knowledge of God, \\#Ho 5:4\\; of open pride, which stared them in the face, and for which they fell into calamities, and Judah with them, and should not be able with all their sacrifices to find favour with God, who had withdrawn himself from them, \\#Ho 5:5,6\\; also of treacherous dealing with the Lord by their spiritual adultery, and begetting strange children, \\#Ho 5:7\\; next their punishment is denounced, of which notice was to be given them by the sound of the trumpet, as an alarm of war, or as calling for mourning, \\#Ho 5:8\\; since Ephraim would become desolate, of which notification had been made among the tribes, \\#Ho 5:9\\; and wrath would be poured out in great abundance on the princes of Judah, who were very wicked men, \\#Ho 5:10\\; and Ephraim would be oppressed and broken by the judgment of God, who would be as a moth unto them, and also rottenness to Judah, because they followed the commandments of men, \\#Ho 5:11,12\\; and, what was still more provoking, when they were sensible of their calamities and distresses, they sought not help from the Lord, but from men that could do them no good; and therefore he threatens to be as a devouring lion to them, \\#Ho 5:13,14\\; and yet the chapter concludes with a promise of the conversion of these people, after the Lord had dealt with them in an angry manner, \\#Ho 5:15\\.